Dear Members of the AIT Community,
In line with my suggestions for a way forward for AIT as I had
communicated through my open letter yesterday, and as promised, I am
very pleased to announce that the reaffirmation of the validity of AIT
degrees has been made in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MoFA) Thailand at the Office of the Higher Education
Commission premises today. This strong and clear reaffirmation
confirmed the validity of the degrees conferred by AIT in the past two
graduations and also the graduation ceremonies that AIT will conduct in
the future.
The meeting was Chaired by the Deputy Permanent Secretary from Ministry
of Foreign Affairs Thailand and attended by members of the AIT Board of
Trustees and Council. The decision of the meeting will be formally
communicated later by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thailand, and I
join others in applauding MoFA for working with members of AIT Board of
Trustees/Council in looking to the future.
It also was decided in the meeting that for the upcoming graduation the
degrees will be co-signed by the AIT President and Deputy Permanent
Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thailand.
Upon my request, it was further noted in the meeting that the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs will facilitate release of the already approved
Royal Thai Government funds for flood rehabilitation and student
scholarships.
It was also decided during the meeting that during the transition
period until Thailand ratifies the new Charter, AIT will be governed by
a Board of Trustees.
AIT is grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Thailand and members
of the AIT Board of Trustees/Council for the pragmatic approach that
was adopted in solving these critical issues.
We celebrate this news.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Said Irandoust
President
Asian Institute of Technology
